Transformers: Armada-Energon 1: Behind Armada
by WindySilver
Summary: Long before Transformers Armada, a Seeker trine was founded. These three Seekers, Stasrcream, Thundercracker and Silverwind, fight their way through the Decepticon ranks, hoping to survive to see the end of the war. How can they survive? What do they go through? Or do they actually survive? Is the Starscream we all know someone else than the leader of The Three Seekers?
1. Prologue

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 4550137.

A Seeker trine plummeted towards a group of Autobot scouts. Those scouts were even younger than any of the Seekers. Even the femme Seeker with silver-gray paintjob was older than any of the scouts, it seemed. And those scouts ran away from the deadly lasers the Seeker trine shot.  
"Hey, wait a sec!" shouted the blue Seeker. "None of those youngsters have insignias of either side!"  
"I noticed the same thing," said the leading red Seeker. "Let's go down and have a better look at them."  
"Roger that. Even though I think Commander Dreader won't be happy about this," the silver-gray Seeker said. They went down and transformers right in front of the youngsters.  
"P-please don't hurt us!" said one of the youngsters.  
"We… we are factionless," the other one said.  
"That doesn't help a bit!" a femme whispered to him. "No… wait, we're on your side! Just please don't hurt us!"  
"So you're neutrals, huh? Why are you here?" the red Seeker asked.  
"We got lost. We were moving away from destroyed Vertex, but then our group was assaulted and we got separated from our families," the femme answered.

The trine felt strong pain in their sparks; it was their remorse, a very familiar remorse. They had been part of the Decepticon group which destroyed Vertex. They had felt remorse for destroying that city. Now they saw more of the results of their actions. They felt sorry for the youngsters.

The Seeker trine looked at each other. This group had been seen as Autobots, and an order was that any neutrals must be killed as well. "Anyone who isn't with us, is against us." That is what had been said to every single Decepticon.

Yet this trine could not just go and kill these young ones in cold blood. They just could not do that.  
"We… we are sorry for that," said the red Seeker.  
"You are? But you're part of the same bunch who destroyed the whole place!" a very young mech said.  
"Yeah, we saw YOU! We saw YOU there! YOU were the ones who destroyed my family's home! And you killed my father when he tried to protect me and my mother!" the mech who had been the first one to talk, said.

The Seekers winced. Hearing that hurt them. It hurt them so badly. They did not want to hurt anyone.  
"We… we are honestly sorry. We… didn't have any other choice," the blue Seeker said. The silver-gray femme nodded.  
"I saw an Autobot outpost out there," she said and pointed to the direction they were facing. "Go there and the Autobots will help you."  
"Why do you…?" the neutral femme asked.  
"We are Decepticons, yes, but we aren't cold-blooded. We just aren't. Now go, before any of us gets caught," the red Seeker said.

The youngsters were not needed to be told twice. They left as soon as the red Seeker had told them to go.  
"Starscream sir, what do we say to Commander Dreader?" the silver-gray Seeker asked the red one.  
"First of all, Silverwind, don't call me sir," said Starscream. "And we'll tell to Commander Dreader that…"  
"That we got rid of them. Right?" asked the blue Seeker.  
"Yes, Thundercracker, we got rid of them," Starscream said.  
"Yup. Got rid of them. Perhaps we enforced the Autobot lines," Silverwind noted.  
"Maybe. But I think they're too young to be trained, anyway," Starscream said, fading away the bitterness from his voice. He, just like Thundercracker and Silverwind and many other Decepticons, are war-born. They went through training way before it would have been even acceptable, if not proper, to get the training.  
"Starscream sir… I… Should we go with them and defect?" Silverwind asked, unsure.  
"We'd get caught. We'd get killed. And it's the same with the youngsters," Starscream said. "No, let's not risk it. Maybe one solar cycle, we'll leave this faction. But not today. On another solar cycle, when it's safer. When we won't get killed because of that so easily."

Thundercracker did not say anything. But he knew what Silverwind was talking about; he wanted to go too, he wanted to leave.

All three of them wanted to leave the Decepticon cause, so that they would not face a situation like this again. They had conscience stronger that it should have been, for a Decepticon, that is.  
"I want this to end already," Thundercracker muttered. "I'm sick of this!"

Starscream put his hand on his shoulder.  
"Try to hang on a little bit more, TC. We'll leave this cause soon, I promise you," the red Seeker told.  
"You do?" the two other Seekers gasped.  
"Yes. I promise. I promise that we leave soon," Starscream said, giving them his now rare smile. "Now let's head back and report."  
"Right!" was the answer from his two comrades who had sworn to follow him, no matter what.

They transformed and flew away, full of hope. And Starscream knew that he would keep his word. He had shared the remorse with the two Seekers; they all were too sick of it. Soon they would either die, defect or lose their minds.

And now the moment, when the fate of Decepticon trine called 'The Three Seekers' would be determined, is now near.

Soon their fate will have its seal for good.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	2. Chapter 1: The New Warrior

Seeker log:  
First time period: Trio enformed. Log entry 1.

Starscream and Thundercracker stood silent. They had been training Silverwind for long enough now. It was time for the young femme Seeker to get the ranking of a warrior. Starscream, who usually kept his feelings deep inside, was seemingly so proud that his armor was hardly thick enough to not break due to it. Thundercracker was proud of Silverwind too, but he was also sad; there should have been another Seeker becoming a warrior alongside Silverwind. Swiftwind, the twin brother of Silverwind, had been training under Thundercracker, while Silverwind had been training under Starscream. But then, during a battle, Swiftwind had gotten separated from others. No one has heard anything about him ever since. Therefore, Thundercracker had joined Starscream on training Silverwind. And now, finally, their hard work showed the result.

Back when Starscream and Thundercracker had become warriors, there had been a ceremony for that, since the training type which was used to train them, had been very rare and valued among the Decepticon ranks. Now there hardly was any recognition for those apprentices who reached the warrior rank. But as Starscream and Thundercracker changed glances very imperceptibly, they were more than sure that they would throw a small party to celebrate Silverwind's new rank.

"Well hello there, young warrior!" Thundercracker greeted Silverwind when the femme came to see him and Starscream.  
"Congratulations, Silverwind," Starscream said, trying to return back his cool self; yet he could not hide his proudness. He felt like his own sparkling had become a great warrior he can be proud of, even though he was not related to Silverwind.  
"Thanks Thundercracker and Starscream sir," Silverwind said.  
"Don't call me sir," Starscream responded. Thundercracker laughed.  
"You're equally ranked with us and yet ya still sir Big Bro! Well done, Little Sister!" he said.  
"Don't blame me for my programming, Thundercracker!" Silverwind snapped, amused. She could not let go of her habit to call her primary teacher _sir_. Besides, it was fun to annoy Starscream by calling him sir especially when he told not to do so.  
"Well, shall we head to our quarters?" Starscream asked, getting his calmness back now.  
"Sure, why not? Thundercracker answered. Silverwind nodded, glad to be able to move to the quarters Starscream and Thundercracker had been sharing with each other for vorns even before she was a sparkling.

"Yup, we still have lots of space here even with ya moving in, Little Sister!" Thundercracker noted, seeing now three berths in line at their quarters. It had been centuries since he and Starscream had shared their quarters with a massive Decepticon named Outscream. At that time, they had not had very much space. But then Outscream had perished in an Autobot ambush and the two Seekers had seized the space Outscream had had for themselves, refusing to have any Decepticons with them. Silverwind was the only one they could let share the quarters, as the femme Seeker was not only their close friend but also trustworthy. Besides, being smaller than either of them, she did not require that much space.  
"What's in schedule tomorrow?" Silverwind asked.  
"Who knows? Maybe we'll get send into another battle half-recharge, or maybe we'll have the whole day to waste time like Skywarp does," Starscream answered.  
"But," Thundercracker said, clearly hiding something behind his back, "today in the schedule is…"

Before shouting "Party!" he threw what he had been hiding up into the air: A party explosive made by Skywarp. Smoke with varying colors filled the quarters in astro-seconds.  
"What in the name of Primus?!" Silverwind shouted. Starscream only got up from his berth, surprised, yet knowing immediately for certain that Skywarp was behind this explosive.  
"Party time!" Skywarp's sudden shout infiltrated the quarters. More explosions came and the amount of smoke increased drastically.  
"What's going on here?" an angry male voice asked.  
"Oh, Commander Dreader! Silverwind has become a warrior and we're throwing a party for that!" Skywarp told loudly.  
"Well don't use those explosives, for Pit's sake! What do you want, destroy this whole place, huh?!" Commander yelled.

Skywarp laughed and shut the door. The smoke would not escape now, but slowly dissolve. And even though some mechs tried to join the party, no one was let in by the four Seeker warriors. With Skywarp showing his tricks, pranks and such to be used later on "anyone from the dimmest warrior on Cybertron to Optimus Prime", even Starscream could not hold his laughter, a laughter even Thundercracker, who was nearly Starscream's brother, had not heard for even since being fresh warriors like Silverwind was now.

Skywarp warped away suddenly, leaving the three Seeker alone into the room with almost totally dissolved smoke. Silence continued among them as the rest of the smoke disappeared. No one knew what anyone should say.  
"Well… Thanks for the party, guys. I really appreciate it," Silverwind said.  
"Hey, no problem, Little Sister! Since there weren't any official festivities, we had to celebrate this!" Thundercracker said.  
"Thundercracker is right," Starscream said, giving a faint but soft smile which faded away as soon as Silverwind saw it.  
"Am I not always, Big Bro?" Thundercracker asked teasingly. Starscream nudged him. Silverwind tried to keep herself from laughing.  
"Anyways, there's one thing we'd like to give you," Starscream said.  
"Really?" Silverwind asked.  
"Here," Thundercracker opened a secret compartment and took something out from it.

He showed Silverwind a quite thin and wide metallic object.  
"What is it?" the femme Seeker asked.  
"It's called the Seeker log. Thundercracker and I made it from parts we found among the scrap back when we were at your age. We've made some recordings to it. And since your training is complete, we could make recordings about what we face and see," Starscream said, making a small pause before continuing, "maybe just so that we could reminisce all of this after the war."  
"We entrust this to you, Little Sister. Please take care of it," Thundercracker ended the small speech and handed over the device to Silverwind, who took it.  
"Thank you. Thank you for trusting me with this," Silverwind said quietly.  
"Well, enough of solemn ceremonies! Let's make our first log entry as a trio," Starscream said.  
"Frag yeah! Hey, pals, why don't we call ourselves 'The Three Seekers'?" Thundercracker exhilarated.  
"What kind of a name is that?" Starscream asked.  
"A name for a Seeker trio, of cource!" Thundercracker shouted, sounding aghast about Starscream not understanding something like that. Silverwind chuckled.  
"Hey, why not? After all, it sounds pretty good," she said.  
"Well sure, at least we'll have a name for our trio," Starscream said, sounding grudging, but inside he also liked that name. He just did not want to show it to his comrades. He did not want to show any of that feeling at all…  
"Seeker log: First time period: Trio enformed. Log entry 1," Starscream began the very first log entry made by The Three Seekers.  
"Hey, wait, Big Bro!" Thundercracker shouted.  
"Don't begin it without us!" Silverwind shrieked.

Starscream repressed his chuckle. While he tried to keep his cool, never-showing-emotions appearance, he still loved being with Thundercracker and Silverwind from the very bottom of his spark. He could not imagine life without them.

He felt that he could not live without them…  
"It's been a veeeeeery long time since the last entry! Yet we're now a trio, as Silverwind has become a warrior and joined us! The duo is no more. It's a trio now!" Thundercracker said.  
"Hey, what should I say? I don't want anything odd to be in the recording… Oops, did it record that?" Silverwind asked.  
"It did! It did! Very nice first words for your first log entry!" Thundercracker laughed. Silverwind didn't say anything. She just looked at the Seeker log, shocked by what she had just done.  
"It's been a long time indeed, but more time will pass from this entry, for sure," Starscream said mostly to himself than to his comrades or the log. "And many more entries will come. No one will extinguish our sparks, I'm sure of it. I'm sure of it…"

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	3. Chapter 2: Harsh Times

Seeker log:  
First time period: Trio enformed. Log entry 7.

Lasers were dashing everywhere around the nearest cerses. The battle had lasted for orns now, and neither faction seemed to tire. The warriors and soldiers changed, but no conclusion had been reached.

A rough Decepticon medic named Springtread was fixing the most urgent of injuries his comrades had gotten. Many complained that he did nearly as much damage at the medic camp as the Autobot scum did to them on the battlefield, though.

Silverwind was one of the injured ones. Her wings had gotten pretty severely damaged, making her flightless as she slowly lost Energon. Energon which she had been low on ever since leaving for this battle with Thundercracker and Starscream. The two older Seekers were still fighting out there.

Silverwind moaned slightly; she had been waiting for repairs for what felt like half an orn. Finally, Sprintread came to see her injuries.  
"'Kay, I'll just add some spare pieces and you'll be able to return back to the big fight," the medic said and turned to get the parts. Silverwind grimaced; she would not leak any more energon, perhaps, but she certainly would not be any more able to fly like she had before the damage. She would be bound to the ground like those fragging Autobots! She was infuriated and insulted.

Someone noticed this and nodded at her, mumbling to his fellow something about "the arrogance of the younglings". Silverwind was about to open her mouth and defend her pride (or what was left of it), but Sprintread came back with the pieces. Silverwind felt disgust for those parts, but she knew better than to let it show; Springtread was well-known on forbidding anyone to get spare parts if the ones he brought were not good enough for them. Silverwind wanted to get her energon leak stopped before she would go offline due to it.

Springtread was known as a harsh medic, and Silverwind sure knew now that it was not a false reputation. The medic was not sensitive on anything or anyone he patched up. No one knew if he had any friends, but it was very unlikely indeed that he would have any. Those possible friends had probably perished during the war already.

Thundercracker and Starscream came met Silverwind as they came at the end of their shift. Silverwind, who had been stuck at the med camp, had to go back to the fight – only to return back to the camp with her just-repaired wings perforated by enemy fire.  
"Gah, you aren't leaking energon! Go and end your shift!" Springtread scoffed dismissively. Silverwind left to meet up with her trine mates.  
"Wow, Little Sister, your wings look real blasted!" Thundercracker shouted as he saw Silverwind's wings.  
"Thanks, dude," Silverwind murmured. There was nothing left of her pride anymore and she was angry because of it.  
"What did Springtread say?" Starscream asked, worried.  
"I'm not leaking energon," Silverwind told. "I wish we'd get back to our quarters soon. I'm tired of this battle."  
"Me too. We ain't advancing anywhere with this," Thundercracker noted.  
"We'll return when this battle is over or we're called back or moved somewhere else," Starscream said.  
"I know, but still…" Thundercracker begun, but he was interrupted by an alert voice.  
"All units, the Autobots have raided our camp. Everyone, fight against them! We mustn't let them get this area to their hold!" alerted a Decepticon commander's voice on the Decepticon comm. channel.

Starscream and Thundercracker rose up immediately.  
"Hey, what about me? I can't fly with these holey wings!" Silverwind shouted.  
"Fight down there, we'll cover you if needed!" Starscream told.

Silverwind sighed, charged her guns and ran into the Decepticon/Autobot wall. She knew she was going to take a lot of damage down there, but in the end, she knew she had no other choice. _Primus, please let me survive this to fight another day with my trine mates_ , she prayed in her mind, doubting that the Cybertronian god heard it; no one had seen the god doing anything to stop the war. Therefore, everyone supposed it was Primus's will to keep fighting. Neither faction had not lost to another one at least yet, anyways. Warriors went offline and new ones came to take their place. That was why the war had lasted for millennia already and the Transformer race was not anywhere near extinction.

The Three Seekers knew what the older warriors were talking. They talked about them, the usual soldiers, being just some pawns used by Megatron so that the Decepticon leader would become the ruler of the whole planet. The very oldest soldiers, those who were said to be older than the war, had talked something about some people called Mini-Cons who had been sent away from the planet at some point during the war. The Seeker trio had never seen a Mini-Con; none of them had even been sparked back when the Mini-Cons had left the planet.

And almost everyone considered these old warriors as yesterday's models which were slowly going haywire, hallucinating and talking scrap. Everyone knew everyone was going to be scrapped and made spare parts for other Decepticons once they completely lose their ability to fight without being able to reclaim that ability.

Silverwind crashed with an Autobot who was nearly her size. They kept punching each other's armors into horrible condition and some others who were fighting literally side by side the managed to shatter off Silverwind's repairs. The Seeker femme tried to ignore her pain sensors attached to what was left of her precious wings. All she could do was just let her scream drown into the noise and try to punch the Autobot in front of her right into the orbit. _Or sending that aggravating Autobot from here to Iacon would be sufficient enough, too_ , Silverwind mused.

The Autobots overran the more or less tired and injured Decepticons. After the Decepticons had retreated, Starscream flew as fast as he could back the former camp. Silverwind had not reported herself to be back from the battle and Thundercracker was being patched up by a less harsh medic than Springtread. Starscream himself was intact enough to get back to find his former apprentice.

Now Starscream saw two Autobots lifting up a light-grey femme who seemed to have had wings which were now quite destroyed. The femme was unconscious, but when the Autobots turned her, Starscream could tell for sure it was Silverwind. Without thinking any more, he shot the Autobots and landed.  
"Silverwind, do you hear me? Silverwind!" Starscream tried to wake the femme up. She reacted a bit, but did not wake up. Some other Autobots were rushing there, having noticed the intruder. Starscream took his smaller companion to his arms and took off with his rockets, getting some hits but surviving back the base.

Thundercracker was already waiting for his fellows to get back.  
"By the Allspark! What's happened to her?" he shouted in horror as he saw Silverwind.  
"I don't know, but it doesn't matter now. Let's get her fixed," Starscream said.  
"Yeah, sure!" Thundercracker said without hesitation and turned to get some way for them, reassuring himself that Silverwind would be fine. After all, Outage, despite of his name, was an efficient medic.

Thundercracker was not going to forgive himself if Silverwind went offline. And he knew that Starscream would not forgive himself, either.

After all, they were the ones who had promised to cover the femme Seeker but then had lost her from their sights as the exciting battle had taken over their interest…

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	4. Chapter 3: Hidden Pain

Seeker log:

Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 2.

"Are your wings okay, Little Sister?" Thundercracker asked, worried.  
"Yeah. Outage patched me up real well!" Silverwind answered, tapping her right wing gently.  
"It's a relief to hear that, Silverwind," Starscream noted. "To be honest, for a while I thought that I had rescued you a moment too late."  
"Hey, I'm not that easy to offline!" Silverwind noted. Hearing Starscream saying something so dark aloud creeped her out.  
"Well, what shall we do today, Big Bro?" Thundercracker asked.  
"I don't know," Starscream noted. He looked at his comrades, seeing them waiting for him to say something. "Err… Why don't we go and have some flying practice?"  
"Ya sure it's good for Silverwind's wings?" Thundercracker asked. It had been too close for Silverwind just a few solar cycles ago, in his opinion. He did not want to push the femme to her limits so soon after such a grave injury. And he knew that Starscream did not want to do so, too.  
"I have to be in full battle shape! And Outage claimed that I am now!" Silverwind said quickly. She did not want to hinder her comrades.  
"Well then, let's go!" Starscream said. He was not used to his position of a leader in their fresh trio.

They walked to the border of their area and transformed. Their jet modes were a tricky thing to handle, but that was one thing they were good at; it was part of their programming.  
"Has either of you ever wondered why our model is named 'Seeker'?" Silverwind asked.  
"Tornsky once explained it to me, but I don't remember it anymore. It was a very complex explanation," Starscream reminisced.  
"I never even bothered to ask Gasfreeze," Thundercracker shouted cheerfully.  
"Gasfreeze wasn't a Seeker anyways," Starscream growled.

Silverwind listened to this. Starscream and Thundercracker never talked about their own teachers. Silverwind only knew their names and that they had perished some time after Starscream and Thundercracker had gotten to the warrior rank. Neither of the mech Seekers wanted to talk about them.

They reached the training area they had used to train at for countless of joors. Those times, in a certain way, were over, but now they went there only to kill time and keep their skills in shape.  
"Gah, ya three atmosphere blasters again. I heard ya got some real damage," said Hot-Shooter, the grumpy administrator of the training grounds.  
"Hi Hot-Shooter! Nice to see you again!" Silverwind greeted cheerfully, pretending that she had ignored the grumpiness of the administrator.  
"Did ya miss us?" Thundercracker asked.  
"Like rust in my tailpipe," Hot-Shooter grumbled.  
"Ya have rust in your tailpipe? Maybe ya should go and see Outcase. He'd as pleased as the Pit to fix it," Thundercracker mocked. Hot-Shooter growled some obscene curses and tried to punch him. The blue Seeker was too fast for him and the Seeker trio went past the administrator before he could turn them into scrapmetal.  
"Well done, Thundercracker," Starscream scolded.  
"C'moon, I _couldn't_ let such a chance pass by!" Thundercracker justified.  
"Starscream sir, I think you're the only one who doesn't ever mock him," Silverwind noted.  
"That's because _I_ respect the work the administrators do for the areas we use! And don't call me sir," Starscream said.  
"Yeah, whatever. You're the most mature of us, anyways," Thundercracker said, shrugging. He did take Starscream's words into account, but sometimes the Leader Seeker was just too serious for his mentality.  
"Sure. Let's get to the practice already, okay?" Silverwind asked impatiently. She wanted to get some move to her joints and thrusters. Ever since Swiftwind disappeared, she had been a bit rash and impatient, frequently moving and fidgeting. It almost seemed like she tried to fill the gap her spark-sibling had left. She never explained this behavior to everyone; actually, ever since Swiftwind disappeared, Silverwind had behaved like she never had a twin-brother. Inside, the femme was torn between those two behaviors even though she did not acknowledge it herself.

Starscream noticed this strictly restricted behavior rise up once again. He never talked about Swiftwind with the femme, but he knew that the young mech's absence in their life tore Silverwind's spark like a laser right aimed at it after having all the thick and extremely strong armor layers guarding it destroyed. It just showed in a very subtle way, in a way that could be noticed only by someone who had felt the same. Thundercracker did not understand this, but Starscream did. And he understood not to force the femme to speak her mind about it. Like he, Silverwind did not want to talk.

They both wanted to suffer their sparkache all alone. They did not want to share it with anyone who was not relevant. And in their cases the relevant Transformer was forever gone. There was no one to talk to.

Starscream had learned to live with his pain so well that while Thundercracker knew about it, he had forgotten about it long ago, after the signs of it had disappeared. Silverwind had no idea about it. It all had happened very long before she had even been sparked.

They flew up and started their most common practice program. It was not too complicated; Starscream and Thundercracker wanted to take it easy for Silverwind's sake.  
"Hey, why don't we take something more advanced?" Silverwind asked.  
"Let's save some fuel. I don't think we're getting much energon for some orns since our last battle didn't go that well on our behalf," Starscream told.  
"'If ya morons don't fare, ya are not getting real refueling'," Thundercracker recited the refueling policy of the Decepticons in his own way. "Frag, I hate it! And many folks are telling that the fragging Autobots get decent refueling even though they'd get their afts totally burst into pieces in the battle! And the Autobot medics are mostly careful when treating their patients! Ours just want to get rid of their own patients as soon as possible!"

Silverwind recognized the bitter tone in Thundercracker's voice. Sometimes she felt like questioning the blue Seeker's loyalty to the Decepticons but she feared such thoughts and sealed them away.

But when the solar cycle came to its end and everyone had gotten their refueling, Silverwind agreed with Thundercracker's tone from all of her core. And she _hated_ it.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	5. Chapter 4: Reconnaissance

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 3752.

"Listen up, Little Sister," Thundercracker said. "My helm is in four pieces. How can you not put it back together?"  
"Do I look like a medic or a mechanic?" Silverwind snapped.  
"Quiet, you two!" Starscream hissed. "Remember that we're on enemy ground."  
"Yeah, yeah," came the answer of the two Seekers.

Nearly ten Vorns has passed since Silverwind had become a warrior and The Three Seekers had been formed. They had started as novices, low in rank. Yes, even the rather experienced Starscream and Thundercracker had such a low rank. But as their cooperation had improved and they had seen more horrors of the war, they had started to fare more or less well in battles and even commander Dreader, who did not like them at all for Thundercracker's irritating attitude, had been forced to admit that the trine was a group of good soldiers. Many transfers had been tried to be made for the trine, but all of them would have teared them apart. For the sake of staying together as a solid formation, they had stayed in Dreader's unit for the distaste of both the commander and Thundercracker. Those two had been clashing so often that both Starscream and Silverwind worked very hard to keep Thundercracker from punching the commander. They all knew that it would only lead to trouble.

Silverwind snapped the last two pieces of Thundercracker's back to their place.  
"You have to get a replacement once we get back to the camp," she told.  
"I expected to hear that," Thundercracker noted. He glanced at the femme Seeker; she had matured a lot as the number of scars gotten and horrors seen had increased.

They had gotten up in rank, Starscream being sub-commander (second only to commander Dreader in their unit) and Thundercracker and Silverwind Rank 10 warriors, just one rank lower than Starscream. They had found their places in the Decepticon war machine and in their small trine; Starscream was the Leader Seeker for he led them, Thundercracker was the Sharpshooter Seeker for his only great capability over others was shooting and Silverwind was the Messenger Seeker for being the fastest of them and thus the best one to deliver messages and orders to others around the battlefield when comm. channel was down or jammed.

"We're ready," Silverwind stated.  
"Then let's move forward," Starscream noted and his trine and Skywarp moved forward. They were on a reconnaissance mission behind the enemy lines. Starscream would have wanted to go with Silverwind and Thundercracker alone, but they had been forced to take Skywarp with them. And during the past Vorns Skywarp had become... very difficult, disobedient and malicious as he had advanced in rank to Warrior Rank 10 alongside them.

"Why are we hiding around here? We should be scrapping Autobots!" Skywarp hissed.  
"Our objective is one so important that it had to be entrusted to the elite warriors," Starscream explained, aggravated. "Like you, too, were told at the assignment. Now shut the trap and keep moving."

They were supposed to find a rumored Autobot weapon some spies had told about and steal its schematics for Decepticon use. Starscream could not fathom what the pacifist Autobots could have possibly made, but he knew that they were not supposed to think or question their assignments; they just needed to carry them out.  
"At least the amount of guards indicates that something is up," Silverwind noted as the sixth group of guards had passed them by. "I've never seen such amount of different guards on a single reconnaissance mission."  
"Who would've believed that the whiny peace-and-love Autobots would make a weapon of massive destruction?" Thundercracker wondered and chuckled quietly. "I'm not gonna believe it until I see it by myself!"  
"Me neither. Let's go ahead," Silverwind said and continued to stay in the shadows while swiftly creeping from place to place. This trait had somehow started to come to her during the last few Vorns without no one knowing how or why. But it was useful – for her...  
"We must stay together," Starscream muttered to the comm. link as Silverwind was too far away for whisper to reach her audio receptors.  
"I can handle this," Silverwind responded.  
"I mean it, Silverwind," Starscream growled. Usually he did not mind the femme's enthusiasm and self-assurance but now they had to stay together just in case that they would get attacked.  
"Okay, I'll wait for you here, _sir,_ " Silverwind answered, putting a lot of pressure and teasing to the last word.  
"Don't call me... Oh, who am I trying to fool anyway?" Starscream grumbled, angered by this behavior. "Let's move on, men."  
"Right behind ya, sub-commander," Thundercracker and saluted. He was clumsiest of them, but Skywarp wanted to intentionally be the noisiest. Silverwind stayed very well hidden in the shadows and it took a moment for the rest of the Seekers to notice her.  
"You know, you could make a good Shadow," Skywarp mocked. Silverwind glared at him and motioned him to shut up; new group of guards passed by close.

No one knows what these Shadows Skywarp mentioned truly are. They are rumors, horror tales the soldiers told each other during recharge breaks. Some claim them to be Decepticons, some say they are allied to the Autobots. Some say that they do not care if the Transformer they encounter is a Decepticon, an Autobot or a neutral. They just take those they encounter and turn into their likes. This is mostly made up to explain unexplained disappearances, when someone flees from the battlefield and never returns or is taken captive and killed. Or when one defects to the enemy side and intentionally changes their appearance to avoid getting identified by their former allies.

What everyone agrees about is that they blend into the shadows. The most skilled ones are rumored to be able to blend into the shadow of a Transformers and take control of their victim by it.

The guards disappeared. Silverwind restrained her will to punch Skywarp; the noise would only attract unwanted attention. They had a mission to accomplish.  
"To left and inside," Starscream told. They lurked into the science facility told to them by the spies.

Starscream, the only one the way had been told to, took the lead and they came to the room they had been looking for.  
"Wait, isn't this that the weapon that was rumored to be destroyed?" Silverwind asked.  
"It wasn't destroyed, it was stolen. I got my aft kicked back there," Skywarp informed.  
"Well I was actually wondering. I mean since when would the Autobots make something like this?" Thundercracker noted.  
"It's the original one for sure," Starscream muttered and downloaded the information, triggering the alarm.  
"Gotta run," Thundercracker said, startled by the sudden alarm.

The door closed and sudden electrical cages came around them, effectively stopping them.  
"This was a trap!" Skywarp exclaimed.  
"Frag!" Thundercracker shouted.  
"Calm down!" Starscream shouted and activated the tracker informing the base about them being trapped. "We'll get out of here!"  
"How exactly?" Skywarp asked.  
"We'll see," Starscream told.

Autobot soldiers came and secured the Decepticons who could not defend themselves; the cages emanated ion ray that incapacitated their weapons. Then the spies appeared. There was two of them and both had crossed their Decepticon insignias, the Autobot insignias now next to them.  
"You double-crossed us!" Silverwind exclaimed.  
"Traitors!" Thundercracker shrieked.  
"Traitors, perhaps, but you can redeem yourselves. Help us out of this place!" Starscream said.  
"No, you redeem yourselves and join the Autobots. They treat their folk and also neutrals and prisoners far better than the Decepticons do," said the blue Seeker-like spy. _He must be from the newest Seeker line_ , Starscream thought.  
"You'd do yourselves a favor," said the other spy, who was toxic-green.  
"NEVER!" Skywarp screamed and tried to charge at them, only to hit the bars and get electrocuted by them. His processor got turned off and the Decepticon warrior fell to the floor.  
"Listen, younglings, we're proud Decepticon soldiers!" Thundercracker snapped.  
"It would serve you well to just defect and fight on this side," an Autobot who was standing by Silverwind's cage noted.  
"No one asked you anything," Silverwind hissed.  
"Or just become neutrals and get out of the war. There are neutral zones to live in," said the blue spy.

Silverwind and Thundercracker turned to look the seemingly calm Starscream. The Leader Seeker had not said anything yet.  
"I am not betraying my side now that I have gotten to a high rank," Starscream told with a neutral, yet cold voice. "We all have worked for too many Vorns to get this far. I am not going to throw it away like this."  
"Me neither!" Silverwind and Thundercracker backed up.  
"Then be it. Soldiers, take the prisoners to the prison to wait for the commander's decision," commanded the Autobot closest to the spies.  
"Yes, sir!" came loud answer with many voices and the cages were put to hover themselves and the Decepticons were put to prison cells, not released from their cages.  
"Now this went well!" Skywarp muttered as he woke up.  
"You wanted to defect?" Starscream asked coolly.  
"No," Skywarp answered. "I'll never join these whiny Autobots! Those spies are pitiful!"

Silverwind wanted to tell the black and purple Seeker to not be so hard on younglings, but she did not want to sound like a soft-sparked Autobot. She could understand how the spies felt; she would have done the same in their age, she was sure of it. But now their situation had become better as they had gotten a relatively high rank. They had truly worked too hard to abandon it so soon like that.

It was mostly just proudness which kept The Three Seekers in their decision, but somewhere deep inside they felt regrets on refusing. They had been double-crossed, betrayed just like they always were if they trusted any other Decepticons than each other.

But now, hearing only each other and the hum of the electrical bars, they could only wonder: _Did we just commit a huge mistake?_

 _ **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro,** **Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp** **has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**_


	6. Chapter 5: Stuck

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 3779.

Many solar cycles had passed since the defected Decepticon spies had gotten the four Seeker warriors into a trap and imprisoned. None of the four Seekers had yet cracked at the interrogations; they had gone through worse things, they all thought. Besides, especially Skywarp was hell-bent on not bowing to the Autobots. They all had their honor of a warrior to keep. Even Silverwind, who was most likely the mentally weakest of them – she is a femme, after all – had kept her vocabulator silent. But in the end, the Autobots had not gone farther than words and some weak electrocuting. _"Only a sparkling would tell anything to avoid that level of an electrocution_ , _"_ Skywarp had noted. Thundercracker had scored off by noting that _"even a Decepticon cadet wouldn't tell anything, but the Autobot warriors would tell everything after a nanoklik of that electrocution"_.

Starscream had stayed silent for long, not talking with anyone. Silverwind, after having gotten some electrocution to her head due to the Autobot interrogator losing his calm, mumbled something that did not make sense very much. As far as her Seeker brothers had understood, she seemed to be talking to the nonpresent Swiftwind. Starscream silently assumed that something had triggered some sort of memories about Swiftwind within Silverwind's processor. But at least the silver-gray femme had been able to keep their log hidden, and they had gotten to make more entries when no one has noticed.

The mutual thing for the entries was that no one had come to help them. They were weakened and on their own. But, The Three Seekers had grudgingly admitted, the Autobots took good care of them while not getting them strong enough to at least attempt to break out. And besides, they still had their individual cages and none of the Decepticons were let out; when they were taken to interrogation, they were just moved with their cages.  
"You know, I think that if we persist long enough, we'll have a Prime to interrogate us! Now that would be so awesome! We could brag with it for the rest of our lives!" Skywarp noted.

Starscream heard vaguely Thundercracker joining the conversation. He did think that Skywarp would have said that even before, but the tone was different; it seemed that after that "special training" Skywarp and some others had gotten, the prankster they had sometimes seen as a funny brother and sometimes as the brother they wanted to shoot at had changed into the malevolent asshole who was in the jail with them now. Starscream did not want to even imagine what had happened to the black and purple Seeker and his fellow Decepticons who had been in the training with him.

He, being the highest-ranking Decepticon there, was in charge of the three warriors he had with him, and also in charge of thinking what they would do now. It seemed that no one was coming for them. They would have to fight their way out in some way he could not fathom, at least yet, or surrender.

 _Surrender? Could they possibly trick the Autobots to think that they had been cracked and thus get away?_

Starscream scoffed inwardly to himself. It had worked a couple of times before, but it certainly would not work here, not for them.  
"Swifty, could you get us out of this place?" Starscream heard Silverwind mumble. "We'd really appreciate it."

Hearing the femme imagine that she was talking to her long-lost twin did hurt Starscream. Such delusions, such trauma the femme had gotten back when Swiftwind had disappeared for good, just refused to leave Silverwind's processor. _Most likely some sort of problem with her spare parts; she needs to get a full checkup from a medic and get some replacements. Or maybe it's just that she is a femme_ , Starscream wondered.

 _"She is a femme."_ is what everyone uses to explain Silverwind's faults and as a reason to look down on her. Starscream and Thundercracker, however, knew that while Silverwind had her problems especially on the mental side, she was a warrior as good as any of the mechs. Yes, she was smaller. Yes, she did not have as much strength as they did. Those were facts, but Starscream knew that what Silverwind lacked in strength, she compensated it with her nimbleness. With her nimbleness and her intelligence. During these Vorns Starscream had once witnessed Silverwind beating a foe twice as big as her by tricking him into a melting pit. It had been a great sight, and he could not have been more proud of the femme he had once trained.

Skywarp and Thundercracker bickered with each other about their achievements during their lives and Silverwind talked with the imaginary Swiftwind. Starscream observed them silently, still not saying anything. If the pattern stayed, the next Seeker to be re-interrogated would be him.

He was not wrong about it. He sat and looked as his three fellows were left behind as his cage was moved. Soon none of the other Seekers were to be seen as walls came between them. This was the 31st time he was taken away; of course the Autobots put more attention to the Decepticon who had the highest rank, Starscream knew it. He had learned that many Vorns ago, because that was what the Decepticons usually did as well. Though that was usually just because the Autobots of lower ranks broke mentally much more easily than the ones which had earned a high rank.

Starscream was taken to the interrogation room he had learned to know very well. The whole room was dull gray and dull gray only. It was boring and Starscream could not get his optics focused to anywhere else than his interrogators, who were the only thing that made any difference to the dull room. It was the same, plain old he had been through 30 times during the last solar cycles.

But there was something different in the thing this time. Some weird-looking tentacles came crawling to his cage. They looked disturbing, but after seeing and getting horrendous injuries on the battle field Starscream was not intimidated. He turned his head from them, folded his arms around his legs and stared at his interrogators blankly. He would not notice any difference.  
"So, it seems that you are not intimidated", said the big boss. His name was Tork, Starscream knew.  
"Why should a Decepticon warrior be? You Autobots can't possibly do anything that can intimidate us", Starscream repeated what he had been saying many times. But, as any Decepticon could tell, no Autobot can actually get that sink to their processors.

Tork's expression darkened significantly. Starscream did not fear the Autobot, but this time he did get a bad feeling about the interrogator. The expression seemed to indicate that Tork was going to leave whatever rules his faction had about interrogating their prisoners and _force_ him to talk.

Starscream hated when that happened, because not all the Autobots were actually as merciful, empathetic or obedient towards rules as the Primes and other em _pathetic_ people.

This he had learned during the times he had been captive.

However, whatever the Autobots would do would _never_ make him talk. But deep inside his spark he was glad that it was him who got this treatment and not Silverwind nor Thundercracker. Skywarp? That idiot would've been the best choice. Not only that he wouldn't tell anything, but it would spare The Three Seekers. Silverwind had already gotten some unhealthy damage and Thundercracker was crazy enough without electrocution to processor. Starscream himself? As the Leader Seeker of the Three Seekers, he was ready to take whatever would come if it meant that his trine mates were left alone.

Starscream took a deep breath and prepared himself mentally to whatever he was going to be put through.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro,** **Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp** **has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	7. Chapter 6: No Morale

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 3780.

One of the tentacles touched Starscream's leg. It gave an odd pulsation which circulated through his circuits. As a sudden, reflexive attempt to protect himself – he had _encouraged_ a neutral cyberbiologist to amplify those reflexes of The Three Seekers; it would be handy, he knew – and the mech smashed the tentacle with his fist. The pulsation lingered within his circuits and he forced himself to not shudder.

Tork smiled. His smile was evil. It was not a good sign, Starscream knew.  
"This time you _will_ break, Decepticon scum. I promise you, you will start to wish you had told everything earlier," he said.  
"I thought that the Autobots don't hurt their prisoners," Starscream tried to scoff, but his voice was guttural. His processor felt like it was breaking and he could only wonder if this actually was what Silverwind had been subjected to.

More tentacles, more of those ugly red tentacles, came to worsen Starscream's state. The Seeker did whatever he could to destroy them, but soon he found himself from his left side, cramps jolting through his systems and neural circuits, forcing him to fight against positions which would at the very least break his armor.  
"Now tell me everything you know, and your agony will end," Tork's voice was forced through the audio sensors. Starscream tried to reply, but his oral circuits were cramped. He could only have odd cracking out of his mouth.  
"Oh, pardon me for making you unable to speak," now Tork's voice sounded friendly and kind. After what had just happened, Starscream would buy it even less than ever before.  
"Tell your knowledge now and your agony will be shorter than that of my sparkmate, whom your faction kidnapped, tortured and murdered," Tork hissed.

The cramps ended and Starscream let his body fall limp. He tried to get some ventilation, but it was very difficult. It felt like he had just been completely beaten up.

The thing was the he had actually been beaten up inside. Starscream could not utter the single word he had as his answer when his systems forced him to a stasis lock.

After a fair amount of joors Starscream resuscitated, finding Tork staring down at him.  
"Well, tell me then," Tork said unexpectedly calmly.

For a breem, Starscream just stared blankly at the Autobot, unable to think. His processor took time to come fully online and allow him to think. Then he started to gather the thoughts and recall what had happened. But he did not find the word he had been about to say before passing out. He _knew_ it was a single word, but he could not find that word.  
"Answer me!" Tork raged and kicked Starscream. The Seeker twitched with a hiss somehow coming from his ventilation system, convulsing so hard that he heard his now badly damaged armor creak and crack as it gave up under the stress it was put under.

Tork kept kicking and yelling in horrendous rage. At some point the convulsions returned to Starscream's system and the Seeker did not know how he could bear the agony as his armor broke apart panel by panel, revealing sensible wiring and parts that could be easily broken with a kick.  
"You will tell me everything!" Tork yelled.

A stasis lock. Back to the agony. Another stasis lock as the Seeker Leader's body tried to protect itself. Then back. Starscream could not even see anything anymore, everything was full cramped. He knew he was going to die now. He only wished that his trine mates would be spared from this fate.  
"Get up and speak!" Tork was so enraged that he could not understand that he was killing the mech who had the information he wanted.

Suddenly there was an explosion. Starscream felt the ground shudder. Something moved all around there.  
"What the..." that was the very last thing he ever heard Tork say.

Starscream blacked out once again. He could barely think that he was going to the Pit now, without saying goodbye to Silverwind and Thundercracker. His spark hurt with that thought, but then everything went fully dark.

The next thing he knew about was the beeping of some devices. He knew that beep. It was what he usually heard when he was lying on a berth in any med bay.  
"Thanks for the help, Swifty," Silverwind's word muttered to the air somewhere next to him. Starscream turned his optics online. As he turned his head to look at the femme – Silverwind's head was still being patched – but he did not see her twin brother there. Silverwind was still seeing things.

A medic came over Starscream, but the Leader Seeker only managed to let out odd guttural voices instead of asking how everyone else were. Then he passed out again into the darkness.

 _A quintun later; log entry 3785_

"And you are therefore fully repaired and ready to return to battle field," the medic, Outblade, declared with his monotonous voice.  
"Thank you," Starscream said. He and his trine were finally ready to leave.  
"Finally! Finally we're free! Hey, let's throw a party!" Thunderscracker said. "Skywarp, wanna join us?"  
"No," the black and purple Seeker answered tersely and teleported away. Silverwind and Thundercracker looked at each other and shrugged. They could understand Skywarp's change as little as Starscream could.  
"Let's go," Starscream said. "We can throw a party on our own."  
"Did you really just say that, Big Bro?" Thundercracker asked. "Wow, you sure you're ok?"  
"Anything to get away from here," Starscream said. He had rested for the whole quintun, but he still felt tired. Just standing, let alone walking, seemed to take so much effort that it was almost too much. His fellows seemed to notice it, and came closer to him, Silverwind wrapping her arm around his waist just as Thundercracker put his hand on his shoulder. It was the subtler way of them giving him support when he felt like his strength was failing.

Suddenly the two started to cover the silence with chatter, some useless chatter to which Starscream felt easy to drown to. With a daze, partly powering down, he allowed his dear friends guide him to their quarters and to his familiar berth. Starscream lay down, not willing to go back to recharge, but he wanted to just lie there. He noticed how his trine mates took their places by his sides. It was like an odd ritual to them; they were that tightly knit to him.  
"Now what about the party?" the Leader Seeker asked.  
"You are not that well, Big Bro," Thundercracker noted. "Let's save the fun for later and recover first."  
"That's... oddly deep from you, TC," it was very unusual for Starscream to call Thundercracker by that name outside of fast comlink discussions during which he had to be as fast as possible to finish his sentences.  
"Just rest. You went through a fair part of the Pit out there," Silverwind said with a soft, coaxing tone. "We can wait."

Starscream sighed and turned off his optics, letting his ventilation systems cool down his exhausted body. Suddenly he could not help thinking that he had been let out of the med bay too soon.  
"Silverwind, I remember hearing that you talked to Swiftwind," Starscream said. He did not know what to say.  
"I heard that too. You had gotten a really had hit to your head, Little Sister!" Thundercracker noted. "Your logic circuits were haywire!"  
"Swiftwind was there," Silverwind said steadily. "He was there, I know he was."  
"That does not make any sense. He is gone," Starscream turned his optics back on the look at the femme.  
"I saw him," the femme said.  
"Well I did not! When was he there anyways? How did I not notice him?" Thundercracker snapped.  
"He was there!" Silverwind insisted. "He came there, he somehow slipped past the guards, and I asked him to get us help! And the warriors who came were called by him, he led them!"  
"I did not see him among them. I did not," Thundercracker said.  
"But he was there! I don't know, maybe he was invisible to everyone else but me. Maybe only I could see him because he is my twin! He stayed by our sides until we had gotten to the med bay! Then he left. He did not tell me where, but I talked with him earlier, in the cell," Silverwind told.  
"But I did not hear him, either," Thundercracker noted.  
" _He was there!_ " Silverwind insisted. "Why can't you believe me?"

The femme's tone made Starscream's spark ache. It reminded him of the times of loss. True loss.  
"Silver..." he sighed. "I know that you want to believe that Swiftwind is still out there, but as long as we have not seen him, we have no proof and the only possibility of this occurring is because of your processor damage."  
"But he still was there!" Silverwind sounded like a sparkling now.  
"Silverwind... Hey, let's leave this be. We cannot reach an agreement on this," Thundercracker changed his mind mid-sentence when Starscream turned his head to him to glare weakly at him.  
"Sure," Silverwind sighed sadly. She did not like that her brothers thought that she had imagined her twin being there. She was sure deep to her core that Swiftwind had been there.

But why had no one else seen nor heard him? Could he really have been just a hallucination of the processor damage?

 _No. It couldn't have been. How else could the warriors have gotten there and acted like that?_

Silverwind found herself unsure.

 _On the next orn; log entry 3786_

Thundercracker locked the door and shut all the comm. systems. They could not be bothered nor stopped from partying through this orn.  
"What shall we do? We don't have Skywarp's stuff to make things more awesome?" Silverwind asked.  
"We'll imagine part of it, while part of it will be a hologram from the Seeker log," Thundercracker told.  
"All right!" Silverwind shouted. She took the log from her chest compartment and handed it over to the blue Seeker. He took a recording from the archives and turned it on.  
"IT'S PARTY TIME!" Skywarp's voice came out of the recording file. Then music and random explosions came sounded.  
"Let's party!" Thundercracker shouted, put the log on the table in the corner of the quarters and soon The Three Seekers had thrown themselves into the imagination and memories of partying. This could be their last time in vorns to have time to party.

They had to use every single occasion they had for that. Just to forget the horrors they had seen, and would face soon enough.

This was their life, fighting as warriors in the civil war of Cybertron.

They were Decepticons.

They were Seekers.

But they also were _The Three Seekers_.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	8. Chapter 7: Thunder Trine

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 5290.

"Thundercracker, Thundersky, Thunderstorm, you must do this," Dreader briefed the three Decepticons in front of him. While Thundersky and Thunderstorm were fully loyal and sane Decepticon soldiers, he was worried about the blue-and-black Seeker Thundercracker, who was notorious for his behavior. However, in order to form the Thunder trine, he needed three Decepticons who had _thunder_ in their name. These were his only choices.  
"Yes sir!" was the answer from Thundersky and Thunderstom.  
"Yes, big boss!" Thundercracker cackled. "We will infiltrate that building and bring a couple of hostages as a souvenir for ya!"

Dreader willed himself to stay calm. Thundercracker was the weakest link of this mission: if someone would mess up, it would be him. No one else.  
"Go," he hissed.  
"Yes sir!"

 _At least two of those can follow protocol_ , Dreader thought as he watched the two Seekers run after their companion who had just ran off before them. _With luck that nutcase won't come back from this mission, and I won't have to send him to be checked. I don't even want to know what's the malfunction in his processor._

"Transform!" Thundercracker let out, transformed and flew up in the air. "Yaaa!"  
"Cracker, we're on a stealth mission! Keep it down!" Thundersky said via the comm.  
"Ah, chill, my fellas! We just left our headquarters! The Auto-goons cannot hear us coming from here!" Thundercracker said and sped up, howling in joy.  
"TC is already enjoying his mission," Silverwind noted to Starscream; the two Seekers who were left behind were on a platform of the headquarters, looking at the three different-colored Seekers – the Thunder trine, as they were called – who sped away towards the Autobot area. "Will he make it back?"  
"He has made it before. I doubt he'll fall there, either," Starscream said with his low voice.  
"But he's alone, without us. His fellow 'Thunder units' can double-cross him or leave him behind in a tight spot," Silverwind said.  
"That has been exactly the case quite many times. He has come back from those missions. He'll do it this time, too," Starscream said. "Come on, we have sparring to do."  
"Yes," Silverwind said, "sir."  
"Don't call me 'sir'", Starscream replied.  
"Yes sir," Silverwind teased. Starscream sighed. He _hated_ being sirred.

With a last look at the distant jets, he prayed yet again, _Primus, let him come back alive._

He always prayed that when Thundercracker was sent on a mission without him or Silverwind.

Thundercracker had taken the lead, even though Thundersky was the official trine leader. But Thundercracker, oh, Thundercracker _refused_ to let anyone else than Starscream lead him. His Big Bro was the only being in the galaxy whom he would ever follow.

Slowing his howling engines and landing as they arrived close to the Autobot outpost, Thundercracker started to use everything he knew about stealth. He walked on, gesturing his trine mates to follow. Thundersky was not amused by how the blue-and-black Seeker had taken command, but at that point he could not protest; it would have given the Autobots their location.

Thundersky and Thunderstorm both knew that Thundercracker was an elite warrior, among the best of their unit, but they also knew that he was a nutcase. If they were to get caught, it would be because of him, they knew.

Then Thunderstorm bumped his foot on debris when they were just sneaking past the Autobot guards. Thundercracker turned to glare at him silently. His back was towards the guards, who were now approaching.  
"Who's there?" the yellow guard asked. He was shorter than his fellow, who was black.  
"Identify yourself!" the black Autobot yelled.  
"We are scrapped all thanks to you," Thundercracker muttered. "Now shut up and follow me."

He put cuffs on both of his trine mates, who tried to protest but were silenced. Then Thundercracker turned to face the guards, who saw his Decepticon insignia right away.  
"Decepticon!" the yellow Autobot hissed as they both pointed their rifles at Thundercracker.  
"Hello. I was wondering if you could take a couple of prisoners from a defector. I'd be most grateful if I could get these two pawns off my responsibility," the blue Seeker said. "This was the most perfect opportunity to do this."  
"What?!" Thunderstorm shrieked.  
"Traitor!" Thundersky yelled. Thundercracker turned to look at him with scorn.  
"So what if I am? Maybe I am just sick of you seeing me as a glitchy idiot. Who knows?" he said and turned to the Autobots. "Now what do you say?"  
"This could easily be a trap," the yellow Autobot said. The black Autobot nodded.  
"If you don't trust me, then go ahead and imprison me too. I surrender," Thundercracker said and held his hands up in the air.

The guards looked at each other and nodded. The yellow one commed the headquarters about prisoners, and the black Autobot unarmed them and cuffed Thundercracker, who did nothing to object. The other two Decepticons glared, but they could do nothing.

They were taken into cells.  
"I hate you, Thundercracker," Thundersky said right before he was thrown into his own cell.  
"I hate you too, Thundersky," Thundercracker quipped back as the door closed. He was not thrown into his own cell after Thunderstorm as he could just walk in there peacefully. The door closed behind him, and he knew that this had to work out now.

After some time he was taken away from the cell to be interrogated. He was cuffed and lead to a well-lit room. There were four Autobots; Thundercracker recognized one of them, Red Alert, and Red Alert recognized him. The Autobot stiffened when he saw the familiar Seeker.  
"Sit," the guard who had lead Thundercracker to the room commanded, pointing at the chair in front of the Autobots.  
"Sure," Thundercracker said with a pleasant tone. He sat down and looked up to his interrogators.  
"So, we heard that you wish to defect," said a white-and-red Autobot; he looked like a flier.  
"Yes indeed," Thundercracker said evenly.  
"Why is that?" the same Autobot asked.

Thundercracker gathered everything Starscream had criticized about the Decepticon war machine. He echoed the wishes and musings Silverwind had voiced to them. He recounted every betrayal, every backstabber, every lost fellow he had even distantly liked. He imbued his frustration with the never-ending war to which he had been born, to the magnificent words no one knew he knew, which he used to convince the Autobots. He could pull this off, and maybe he could gather some intel.

As his processor dully formed the sentences, he wondered if he wanted to truly stop the fighting. He wondered if he truly wanted to defect, if Big Bro and Little Sister would be willing to defect; and if they were not, would he be ready or willing to leave them behind on his quest for peace.

 _Wasn't that what he wanted? Peace?_

The Autobots asked him that.

And suddenly Thundercracker did not know the answer. They had never dealt with any thoughts about peace in any other form than the eternal peace of death which they wanted to avoid.

He had no answer to give them.  
"I... I just want a better place. I... I want comrades that I can count on... Please, you must believe me," Thundercracker attempted to convince his interrogators, but the Autobots were not convinced. Red Alert knew just how many of his friends this Seeker had killed, and they all knew the reputation of an elite warrior this Seeker had earned to himself.

After the questioning, Thundercracker was taken back to his cell.

He had failed.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	9. Chapter 8: A Way to Get In

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 5291.

Thundercracker waited. He could not contact his trine mates, true nor disposed. He could only wait until the Autobots would come and get him. Although, since Red Alert was there, he believed that he would not get a treatment similar to that of given to his trine and Skywarp by somebot named Tork. No, these mechs would treat him fairly.

Once again, after walking in a circle around his cell for countless of times, he sat down and thought about truly defecting. It had been a ruse in the beginning, but as he thought about it, as he thought about everything he knew of Autobots and of Decepticons, he felt like defecting to stop the backstabbing that happened to him. But he still believed that the Autobots were weak, and he felt strong when he was a Decepticon. He did not want to feel weak, he had enough of weak moments. He wanted to be strong; he _had to_ be strong. He had to protect his dear trine mates, his dear Big Bro and Little Sister, even if they never knew that he did his best to protect them. He had to be strong for them. He cared so much about them that he would be willing to sacrifice his own spark for them if absolutely necessary.

Those two Seekers were the only ones he knew for real. They were the only beings who never looked down on him in despise, muttering words like "faulty", "glitched" or "nutcase". Silverwind and Starscream were the only Decepticons whom he ever could have counted on without any fear or possibility of betrayal. They were the only family he had ever known.

The Three Seekers were the only family in the Decepticon ranks, Thundercracker feared. Then he thought that by defecting he could see if there was any sort of families on the other side of the war, the Autobot faction. _Surely the pathetic Autobots had families there, why wouldn't they fit in there? The war is harsh, but surely there are families there. There must be!_

Thundercracker did not know for how he waited. Then he was fetched for another interrogation, which was when he was sure of what he wanted to find out.

He wanted to know if there were any sort of families in the Autobot ranks. He wanted to know whether or not his own family would stand out, should the whole trine defect. He wanted to know it so badly, and he yearned for peace. He yearned for living with a loving family in peace, with no fear of being killed, with no fighting against mechs he had never met before, mechs whose named he did not know and whose names he would never hear or find out. He loved battling, that much Decepticon programming he had in himself, but he also wanted this pointless fighting end. He wanted to stop seeing the corpses, the bled Energon, the death's hand taking them to the Pit all around him. He did not feel like stopping killing, but he would not object either, if he was required to stop it.

The conflict between the ethics and views and the Decepticon programming plagued The Three Seekers, but at the same time it unified them. They knew they all felt the same, even if the rest of their faction never did. They had someone to talk with without any fear of being labeled as defective or a traitor.

Thundercracker felt exhausted when he got to the chamber in which he had been interrogated the last time. The grand speech he had given had been great indeed, but he did not feel like repeating it again; if it had not worked the first time, the second time would work only less. The Autobots must have known that he was not so clever. He decided that it was time to tell why he wanted to defect: "I have a family in the Decepticon ranks. We are there for each other when everyone else backstabs or shoots us. Our unity is the reason why we are all still alive in this Pit. But we are tired of the backstabbing. We don't know what our faction may do to us; they have already done something to Skywarp. Why not us next? I was sent on a mission to infiltrate this place with the guys who had been assigned with me, but when the chance came, I decided that I want to see if such families as my own exist on the other side of this war: your faction. That's all. We are sick of this, but we can't stop fighting. That's in us by our faction."

No one said anything. Thundercracker was sure that whatever his interrogators had expected, this was not it. He knew that he was risking things, but this was his only chance to ever escape. Starscream and Silverwind would not be there to help him to get out. He could do reconnaissance, then get away and give the intel to the Decepticons. Leaving the other Thunder units would make no difference; they would be the sacrifice of the valuable intel he could gather.

For a moment Thundercracker mused about the consequences of their escape. They would tell everything to everyone who would listen, and he would be in trouble. Yet they definitely would have done the very same to him. His only way of securing it would be killing them or getting them killed. But was his Energon so cold that he could do that to his comrades, no matter how deceptive or despicable? Thundercracker was not sure about that.

He was taken away from the room. He tried to predict where they would take him, as they took a different turn once. Yet it all ended with similar walls. He now knew where he was being taken.

 _Slag them all!_ Thundercracker cursed inwardly as he was taken back to his cell. He knew that he could only wait for the Autobots' decision now.

It took time, but he received the decision: it was negative; he would be help prisoner.  
"Well slag you all then! If it's not now, it's never!" Thundercracker shrieked and kicked the door. "I'll get out anyways, that's for sure!"

In fury Thundercracker charged at the door with all his weight and might. Surprisingly, the door flew off its place.

Suddenly he was free to reclaim his weapons, steal the intel and _maybe_ free his fellow Decepticons who would definitely betray him on the first nanoklik he would have his back turned on them. The guards started shooting and the Seeker rushed away.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	10. Chapter 9: Our Daring Escapist

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 5292.

Thundercracker allowed the fire to ricochet from his armor. He could handle it until he would get his weapons back. On the way through the corridors, he opened every door he managed as he ran. At first it was difficult, but once he snatched a rifle from an Autobot guard, he could shoot the doors open. After all, Thundercracker was not the Sharpshooter Seeker for nothing! What he lost to Silverwind when it came to speed and to Starscream when it came to strength and intelligence, he beat them both at accuracy when it came to shooting, and that was what he was very proud of. From the opened doors came other Decepticon captives who either joined the escape or attacked the guards.

The attacking prisoners were a good diversion, and Thundercracker soon had lost the guards. Now he had to become stealthy and get his things back. The spots in which the shots had struck through his armor stung, but as he held the stolen rifle close to his torso, he allowed himself to concentrate on the silence which was broken by the alarm coming from far away.

He had to go back to free his fellow Seekers. He detested Thundersky and Thunderstorm just as much as they detested him, but he knew that it was risky to let them stay captive. But he needed all the intel he could gather first. In this mayhem in which everyone would run to stop the escaping Decepticons, he could do that easily.

Thundercracker had just turned his back when he felt a gun against the back of his helm.  
"Hello, traitor," the voice was Thunderstorm's.  
"Thunderstorm. So you got away as I trusted," Thundercracker said, putting his act on to save himself from the wrath of his comrades. "Good. Then this plan C can work."  
"What fragging plan C?" Thundersky's voice now asked.  
"Our mission when we received it was plan A. When we got caught, I used plan B. I did not manage to infiltrate the Autobot ranks by seemingly defecting. Now it's time for plan C: We use this chaos to get the intel we came here for and get away," Thundercracker explained.  
"Why should we trust you?" Thunderstorm asked.  
"Because I have a plan. And because if I wanted you dead, I would have already done it. Not that I trust you either, but we need the firepower of us all to get away with infiltrating this place," Thundercracker explained. "Will you kill me and try to do it all by yourselves or will you allow me to do my function in this group?"

The gun moved to his back.  
"You are our shield," Thunderstorm snarled.  
"Very well," Thundercracker said. He started to walk onwards, the gun never leaving his back. He knew the way where they were supposed to go in order to get what they needed. However, there was a console nearer than that, and that was from where Thundersky, despite Thundercracker's protests, took the Autobot intelligence on his datacard.  
"We're done, let's go," Thundersky said. Thundercracker only heard a "bam". Then he found himself paralyzed on the floor, bleeding Energon. Thunderstorm had shot him to the back and broken essential neural connections. He could do nothing.

He lay there, bleeding slowly. The alarm slowly ended and the chaos ebbed away from the outpost. Two Seekers, among a few Decepticon prisoners, managed to escape, but many were recaptured while Thundercracker slowly bled. He kept bleeding, as if he would never run out of Energon.  
 _Big Bro... Little Sister... my family... Please forgive me..._

 _Meanwhile in the Decepticon base S24-5T_

"How did you implant this camera to him?" Dreader asked.  
"We did not. The Autobots did. We merely hacked into their system to see it," Starscream explained.  
"Shooting someone superior in ranking is a punishable act. Also, they will only deliver a virus to our system if their datacard is allowed to be connected with it. It was a clear trap laid by the Autobots. This is nothing new, and these two Thunders should know it," Silverwind noted. "We request permission to replace them on the mission and get TC and the intel."  
"Shoot those fools down, if you will. We have no space for incompetent idiots like them," Dreader said. "Get going, we need that slagging intel!"  
"Yes sir!" the two Seekers whom Thundercracker was well acquainted with said and ran off.  
"I hate this unit of Seekers and whatnot. I need a transfer," Dreader gnarled to himself. "Time to contact the HQ for that..."

Starscream and Silverwind sped up. They met Thunderstorm and Thundersky.  
"Hey! You two, stop!" Silverwind shouted and started to transform. Starscream did the same and the stopped mid-air. The two Thunder units did the same.  
"What do you want? We're in a hurry!" Thundersky roared.  
"Why don't you two traitors hand over the Autobot virus so that we can get rid of it?" Starscream growled.  
"Traitors?!" Thunderstorm yelled.  
"What virus?" Thundersky snapped.  
"The virus which you downloaded from the Autobot console right before you shot Thundercracker to the back, you filthy rusting processor-lacking dimwits!" Silverwind shrieked.

The two Seekers froze.  
"How can you know?" Thunderstorm gasped.  
"The Autobots planted a camera on TC and we hacked to see what's going on," Silverwind explained. "He knew that the console was a trap. Even a Pit-spawn youngling knows that, but you didn't, now did you?"  
"Er..." neither of the Seekers could deny the accusation.  
"'We have no space for incompetent idiots like them', says commander Dreader, meaning you two," Starscream took his gun.  
"'Shoot them, if you will', he told us," Silverwind followed Starscream's example.  
"No, wait, we can explain!" Thundersky started, but he was shot by Starscream at the same time as Silverwind shot Thunderstorm. They both hit their mark: the Spark.

The traitorous Seekers fell down, dead far before they ever hit the ground. When they finally did that, Starscream and Silverwind had already sped away in a hurry; every klik that ticked away took Thundercracker closer to joining the AllSpark.

 _Hang on, TC, we're coming for you_ , Silverwind knew that her thought would not reach the blue Seeker, but she could not help it. Maybe Primus would hear her and help them save their brother.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	11. Chapter 10: Saviors

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 5293.

Starscream and Silverwind did not bother using strength; they were in such a big hurry. They both knew that Thundercracker was close to dying by now. They just flew through the defenses, ignoring every single shot that hit them (none hit anything vital for functioning as normal) and kept going, knowing where to head. Sometimes it felt like their connection was stronger than a normal one; especially Silverwind had sometimes noted that she sensed more than knew where to head to find either of her trine mates.

It was odd, but in the end it was worth the questionability. It sped things up when it occurred even though no one knew why it happened or what was behind it. The Three Seekers did not have a spark bond with one another, nor any kind of such connection, and there was absolutely nothing that seemed to have caused anything like that inside the sparks, let alone processors, of any of them.

They found Thundercracker lying there, already in emergency stasis. He still kept bleeding, as if his body was never going to run out of Energon.  
"Silver, you go get the intelligence we came for. I'll handle TC," Starscream said as he took the first aid tools from his chest compartment. "Go!"  
"Yes, sir!" Silverwind replied. This time Starscream did not note about siring. He just made himself busy with patching up Thundercracker. Silverwind sped away like a flash of silver. Starscream could not help musing how fitting that name was; Silverstorm would have been even more fitting in the most intense of combats, he knew. But he had to stop musing and concentrate on the task at hand. He started to seal the gaping wounds and reconnect nerves as well as he could. He was no medic, just like everyone in his trine, but they all had acquired skills at fixing themselves and each other. It was a vital skill in the war.

Starscream was naturally skilled – he learned things so naturally that he could be among the best of scientists if he ever got the needed education – but he was not cocky or arrogant; his failures had humbled him, and he was no fool either. He knew that Thundercracker needed urgent medical treatment by a real medic. He would not lose his fellow trine mate who was, not that he ever mentioned it, a brother to him even though they were not related as far as they knew. He could go on with Silverwind, but if Thundercracker died, they would be a trine no more. Their firepower and efficiency would drop and the loss of the blue Seeker's sharpshooting skills would be a big loss to their unit, and thus in their area, for their whole faction too. As a person, they would lose a dear brother and that would be a very hard hit to their morale.

Should the war take Thundercracker away, Starscream did not know if the rest of the trine could fight it anymore. What would be a reason good enough to keep fighting instead of joining their brother in the AllSpark or the Pit, wherever they would end up? Starscream did not know and he did not even want to think about it. He just concentrated on the task and did his best to make sure he would not have to think about it for real.

Starscream had to do his best as always and hope that Silverwind would make it back fast enough for them to carry Thundercracker away.

Silverwind felt the countless hit marks sting, but even though she was now bleeding Energon from her wings and left side, she did not stop. The whole operation and Thundercracker's life depended on how well she and Starscream would do. Pushing past the lines of more and more Autobot enemies who all followed her, tried to corner her, shoot her down, she was a blur of silver wind, as Starscream had once said to her. It was the greatest compliment he had ever given the femme after her training, and Silverwind treasured it in her spark.

Suddenly a shot damaged her left foot thruster and made it go offline. Silverwind tried to make an erratic landing but decided to continue with just the right foot thruster and the thruster on her back and use her legs to keep herself from hitting walls as she flew.

She found her destination and crashed in, then quickly sealed the door so that no one could get in. She shot the Autobots inside who attacked her and just gave the cowering clerks hits worthy of a stasis lock; some most likely got processor or neural damage as her hits and punches broke something with great cracks. Once the Autobots were out of commission, she downloaded what the Seekers had come for and wondered how she could get out. She was sure that by now there was a battalion of Autobot warriors waiting for her to come out of the room.

She searched her chest compartment for something useful and found it: Skywarp's fake grenade. She took it, went to the door and opened it just enough to get the grenade out. She heard many yell about it and a huge clamor made by the Autobots who ran for their lives – and gave the Decepticon space and time to escape. She picked up the fake grenade, inwardly thanking Skywarp for making and giving those things, and flew back to Starscream, now having less Autobots following her.

She had to hurry. She knew that her help was needed to get the dying Thundercracker out before it was too late.

Starscream heard the familiar howl of thrusters. Silverwind was returning. He could only wonder what had taken her so long; Thundercracker could not last for much longer.  
"Hurry, Silver, we have to get TC out _now_!" Starscream hissed to the comm. link.  
"I'm doing what I can!" was the answer. Just then Silverwind made it there and landed with less balance than usually. "Quickly, you go to the front, you're less damaged than I am. And you may have to drag part of me if I cannot fly as fast as you can."  
"What happened to you?" Starscream asked as he lifted Thundercracker to his back, shoulders and wings.  
"'Bots shot at me. Hit the left thruster," Silverwind lifted Thundercracker's head to her right shoulder, hoping that it would balance her enough to handle the loss of one thruster. "All set."  
"Let's go," Starscream was not sure if this would work, but they had to try.

The Three Seekers sped out of the Autobot base, two of them carrying the third.

 _33 Breems later_

"Will he survive?" Silverwind asked the medic, Outbound.  
"No fights in 7 Diuns, slow recovery training after 3 Diuns and he'll be as good as before injuries," Outbound answered.  
"Thank you," Starscream felt great relief. This one had been a very close call.  
"Just doin' my job," Outbound noted. "I'm happy to be here fixin' and seein' reasons to be grateful I'm not fightin' out there. And grateful I am." With those words the medic returned back to the medical bay; he had said nothing about the two Seekers seeing their trine mate now, so it meant that they would not get to see him.  
"Let's get back to our quarters. We'll see TC later," Starscream said and started to walk back towards the quarter building. He did not hear Silverwind's footsteps starting, which made him stop and look back. Silverwind still stared at the closed door of the med-bay. "Silverwind, what's wrong?"  
"Starscream, will we all die fighting this stupid war we never saw starting?" Silverwind's voice was bitter and the lack of _sir_ when addressing him and the addition of _stupid_ when mentioning _this war_ added more to Starscream's wince. Silverwind's face was twisting into anger and her hands suddenly became shaking fists. "We almost lost Thundercracker this time! When will this slag end?!"

It had been Vorns since the last time Starscream had seen Silverwind acting like this and being this angry. Anger, _true anger_ , was rarer when it came to this femme, and the red Seeker knew it better than well.

The worst about it was that when situations like these came, Starscream did not know the answer. And it felt even worse as Energon tears surfaced from the femme's optics and she turned to look at him, looking so willing to demand him the answer even though she knew that not only that he had no answer, it was also unfair to demand one from him.  
"I don't know if this will ever end. But I'm starting to feel like I know how our lives will end... and it's... it's... _this_..." she now broke to crying. Starscream did not manage to catch her when she fell on her knees, but he kneeled beside her and wrapped his arms around her.

Starscream could become a genius or a great warlord if he wanted to and ever got educated enough and into a great position. But he never knew how to handle the emotions of a femme he cared about.

He was no predictor. He could not see how the war or their lives would end. But he knew how _he_ could end it; it was becoming the leader of one faction and then making peace.

Suddenly the idea in his head lighted up. He had to become a better and stronger leader than Megatron, he had become the first and _only_ mech who would be considered to become his replacement, should their leader fall.

But how could he do that? He was a loyal warrior, he could not overthrow him! Could Megatron even be killed? Even Optimus Prime or the strongest of Cybertronians had not been able to do that, so how could he do it?

Starscream found no answer. The idea was great, it was for the good of his family and everyone who wanted this war to end, but he could never do it. He archived it into his memory, knowing his place which was to fight for his strong, seemingly invincible leader. It was not overthrowing him. If he ever could influence this war, it would be by becoming a warrior so great that Megatron would respect him and listen to his advice. But how in the Pit could he _ever_ achieve such a thing?

Suddenly the Red Seeker felt so small in the face of the world of a greater might than his own. Suddenly he was not as strong he had thought he was. Suddenly he was small and unimportant, unable to change the course of the future. Not even his own, let alone that of his trine mates'.

He buried himself to Silverwind's helm, giving up to crying too, allowing his voice to be buried by the crying of the silver-colored femme.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	12. Chapter 11: Killing Intent

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 6506.

Thundercracker had been sent on a mission with his trine mates for the first time since the rest of Thunder trine turned against him. He was wary of his movements – he had been injured very badly – but he kept telling everyone he could handle it. Starscream and Silverwind were paying extra attention to him to make sure that nothing would go wrong on this mission. It was imperative that nothing went wrong on this mission. Because if something went wrong... none of the Seekers knew what would happen.

This time their objective was assassinating Autobot commanders so that the nearby outpost would be basically helpless in the chaos without any commanders and thus easy to capture. The Seekers were no assassins but as the assassins were short on availability, the best warriors had to be sent. And they qualified as the best warriors.  
"Let's be careful about this," Starscream muttered.  
"Of course," Thundercracker had pretended otherwise, but he had not been raring to go. He had seen peacefulness in his time of recovery and as he had watched from his med berth as more wounded had been taken there – and many, many others left for death – he had started to despise war. What could they possibly achieve? Only death for each other.

As he had lain on his berth, unable to do anything else but think, he had wondered: how much difference did Decepticons and Autobots actually have? They were, in the end, just Cybertronians, every one of them. Only their cause kept them apart and fighting each other.

No one would have believed Thundercracker to have such philosophical thoughts, but he had not listened to Starscream and Silverwind and even Swiftwind back in the day for nothing. He had had way too much time for thinking lately in contrast to the previous times when he did not have enough time to think everything through, but now he understood, _now he finally understood_ , that their intelligence was wasted there, in the battlefield. They could all be something so much more, had they not been made to participate in this Pit-spawn war.

Thundercracker reminisced his previous mission in which he had been injured. He had pretended to want to defect, but now it felt more genuine than it had been back then. Now he truly wanted to do it.

He had not talked about that with his fellows even though he had wanted to. There just had not been any private place and situation for that. He wondered if after this mission he would change his mind and file it deep into the depths of his memory. Maybe everything would change soon... Maybe they would die this time.

He did not know what to believe of their targets, of what those Autobot commanders had achieved, of those Decepticons' stories he had believed when he had heard them. There were too many different tales about them, so he did not know what to expect, other than the Autobot insignias. It would be a dangerous mission.

Thundercracker did not know how they could survive, let alone succeed…

As they landed to the border of the territories, the Seekers switched on their cloaking devices which they had been granted recently because of this mission. They were fortunate to have them; it made everything much easier especially to their conscience which had started to become very bad for killing others after Thundercracker's near-death. Their eyes had ultimately opened to the reality they and the Autobots faced: their friends could die and if they did, they would not know what to do then. It was common between them and what separated them from the rest of the Decepticons.

Thundercracker's thoughts returned to his fake-defection, but he shook his head and forced it to go away. Their _Decepticon_ mission was the priority, not his own thoughts of mercy, camaraderie and friendship that blossomed on the Autobot side. No matter how much he yearned for it.

He wanted it all to end. He wanted it to end once and for all!

They landed on the ground once again to check their situation and direction. As always, they were on the right course and since no Autobots were around or had spotted them, they returned to flying high enough to pass for space junk that reflected sunlight. The landing – if they made one – would be a fast one, right at their target. They were waiting for the opportunity to bomb.

They had to do it right. The pressure was on all of them. If they failed and returned alive and in addition with little injuries, they would be goners at their own headquarters.  
"Let's attack now," Starscream whispered to the comm. channel. He saw their first target out of three.  
"Copy that," Silverwind and Thundercracker replied as they followed their leading brother to the sharp dive. They turned their engines almost off and let the physics do the rest as they prepared their bombs. This was their moment and the Autobots would not see what hit them. Unless they had security cameras there, of course.

The ground and the Autobots came closer and closer faster and faster. Thundercracker started to fear that he would crash to the hard ground and instinctively tried to slow himself down a bit without being heard.  
"If we crash and die, we crash and die together," Starscream muttered at the right moment although he was oblivious of Thundercracker's sudden fear. The words made Thundercracker stop slowing himself down and followed his trine instead with the fear they all shared even though none of them knew that the others felt the same.

"Drop and fall back!" Starscream ordered. They all dropped their bombs and suddenly turned their engines to full power, rising back up with a hellish noise which was drowned by the sound of the explosion. They had even managed to hit one of the vital parts of the structuring of the Autobot HQ, causing the building to collapse in brief moments, burying, if not killing, everyone inside.  
"Shall we try to dig the rest of our target up to see if they're dead?" Silverwind asked.  
"No. Let's just return to our own HQ. We've done enough damage for sure," Starscream answered. "Let's get going, this carnage makes me feel awful."  
"Yeah, me too," Thundercracker said, turning away from the ruins as the first Seeker.

This is not right. And they all knew it. They had just potentially killed innocent people who were just like them; poor sparks having born into this war and become a piece of the raging war machine without ever choosing to do so.

This is not right. Not at all.

This has never been right and now they know. Now they know for real how wrong it is...

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	13. Chapter 12: Time to Sleep

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 7034.

"It has been a long time..."

A long time had passed since Thundercracker was badly injured, but the mental injuries and changes had persisted far beyond the physical ones. The blue Seeker had become increasingly philosophical, withdrawn, even unwilling to battle although he pretended otherwise when there were other Decepticons than his Trine watching and listening. Something had to be done.

But what? Thundercracker had not shown anything of his mental state even though his trine mates had noticed the change. They had not talked about it at all; they did not know how. They did not even know what to do, did they? How could they know? It was all inside his head, unseeable to everyone, including himself. Only he knew of his thoughts – if even he knew anything about it.

But now Silverwind and Starscream were in deep scrap. And it was all because Thundercracker had not acted when he was supposed to act. He had failed them and he had failed them well.

 _Slag everything._

The blue Seeker snuck towards his destination, the prison site near which his fellows had been caught, careful to make as little noise as possible. There could be another patrol still going about and he did not want to risk getting caught and delivered somewhere else.

The prison was out in the open because its walls had been demolished recently by an aerial attack. The Decepticon prisoners had all died there alongside the Autobot guards inside. It had been a big loss for both factions, that day. Both factions blamed each other for the aerial attack, yet it seemed that neither had done it.

The Three Seekers had suspected that it had been the work of factionless people who had acquired enough weapons for such an attack. There were many neutrals on Cybertron, but some seemed to be neutral just because they hated both the factions for warring all the time. Everyone had heard of stories about the neutrals who had gone the furthest to oppose the war: the _Shadows_. They were deemed work of fiction, just a tale to scare new soldiers, yet their deeds, those deeds which seemed to be doings of neither the warring factions nor lesser neutral opposition but still had been done, were all but fictive.

 _The war must have taken its toll on them too_ , Thundercracker pondered. The way it affected was different for the neutrals in comparison to warriors, Decepticons and Autobots alike, but it still affected them too. Only now the effects were starting to show in the grand scale of war as some of the neutrals had banded together to oppose both factions and to show their disdain on the state of their world and society. It was going to be awfully messy if they kept attacking the warring factions, the Seeker trine had suspected.

It was also a bad sign. If even neutrals were becoming hostile, what hope was there for peace?

Thundercracker shook himself from his thoughts. He had to concentrate on searching for his trine now. There were no hints on the ground, only spots of acid and other liquids. Something in them made Thundercracker shiver in fear and he stayed away from them. They must have been dangerous if they caused such a reaction in his systems. Then his suppressed curiosity took over and he went back. Despite of the subconscious need to stay away, he scanned the liquids with the equipment he had borrowed from a medic – whose name he did not remember – before leaving the headquarters last time. The data could be useful someday, if for nothing else then for satisfying his or someone else's curiosity.

There was nothing else to be seen on the rubble level. Thundercracker proceeded to search from the air. There had to be something he could find, something that would lead him to his fellows.

There had to be.

 _Meanwhile somewhere else_

"Do you understand me, Duskstorm? We will not resort to torturing, that's an order," a voice which Silverwind recognized as Optimus Prime's said angrily.  
"But sir, this would be a working method against those who try and do injure the interrogators! This would harm only them and only in the case in which they won't talk voluntarily," another voice said.  
"My decision is 'no' and it stays as that. Get rid of those things immediately. I prohibit using them!" Optimus said. "That is an order, commander!"  
"Yes sir..." the other voice said.  
"Fraggit... Sometimes I'm so glad we're Decepticons as Autobots' prisoners. Optimus has some soft spots for every sentient being," Starscream muttered. "At least we won't be hurt."  
"Haha, remember Tork? That piece of Autobot slag caused us a great deal of pain," Silverwind gave a bitter laugh.  
"He was out of order, you know that, Silver. Out of his authority. If Optimus stays here, we'll be safe," Starscream said. Silverwind remarked the odd way of constantly using the Prime's first name, but she did not say it aloud. She knew that something had happened in the past between the Prime and the red Seeker, yet she had never asked what. It seemed rather personal.  
"Talk about optimism," Silverwind was sceptic instead of hopeful. "Probably this one's out of order too with the luck we have and Prime will be gone soon enough."  
"Talk about pessimism," Starscream retaliated. "Primus may be on our side this time and let us get out of here unscathed."

Silverwind turned her back on him, a discreet twitch of her wing calling the other Seeker to come closer so that they could discuss with a little bit more privacy. Starscream took the hint.  
"What do you think happened to TC?" Silverwind whispered.  
"I don't know. Maybe he got away."  
"He's been acting so weird. Something has happened to him before."  
"Maybe he's traumatized. That betrayal by the so-called Thunder Trine was a big hit to his psyche, so maybe that's behind all this."  
"Maybe. This is all maybe."  
"Silver..." Starscream was exasperated. "I know this is difficult, but we can survive. Even if everything's just a big maybe, we can survive. We _can_. And we will."

Silverwind just nodded. She knew all this; this was not the first time they had had this conversation. But she could not help feeling like this; they had been in awful situations, they had all nearly died many times.

And now they had to put their freedom in the hands of Thundercracker, whose fault their predicament seemed to be. He was not himself anymore and that made him an unreliable rescuer.  
"Let's pray to Primus," Silverwind said and sat down. She always did so in the worst of times when they could not do anything but pray.

Thundercracker sighed in frustration and allowed his thrusters to shoot him upwards to see further past the wreckage. He had looked everywhere for his friends for two Orns now. Where could they have been taken? Surely no one would have bothered to haul a couple of Seekers warriors who had nothing to do with decision-making somewhere far away in secret.

Right?

The frustration ran deeper now. This was his fault and now he could not even fix it! He had let his trusted fellows get caught by an Autobot patrol and now he could not even find them!

The blue Seeker shot a piece of scrap metal, effectively obliterating it, and yelled to the world as loudly as his voicebox allowed him to, "SLAG YOU ALL! LEMME FIND MY PALS _NOOOOOWW_!"

As if answering to him, someone suddenly shot him from nowhere, successfully making him fall to the ground. As his systems were shutting down, Thundercracker realized he had been shot with the new weapon of the Autobots: the stasis rifle. Not deadly, did not cause notable injuries, but incapacitated anyone its shots hit as it forced the systems to go into stasis.

Thundercracker could not see the faces of his captors before stasis blacked his vision.

He could only regret.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro,** **Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp** **has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	14. Chapter 13: Predicament

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 7035.

"Slag you all," Thundercracker muttered as his body powered up again after stasis rifle's effects.  
"What was that?" someone asked.  
"It was: 'Slag you all'," someone else, either closer to Thundercracker or just louder in his voice, answered.  
"Must've got into a bad situation before passing out," yet another voice said.

Thundercracker opened his optics. He saw mechs with Decepticon insignias.  
"Welcome to forever-stay camp, buddy," the mech who had answered to the first someone said.  
"What camp?" Thundercracker asked.  
"Forever-stay camp. 'Cause you'll stay here forever," the mech said. "I'm Forlorn." Forlorn raised his hand towards Thundercracker to shake hands with him. Thundercracker did not object to the gesture and introduced himself instead of being an ass, "I'm Thundercracker."  
"Seeker, eh?" asked a mech with bright red, polished armor that distinguished him from everyone else and their scratched and dirty armors.  
"Yes," Thundercracker answered. He saw only Decepticon insignias and seemingly amiable mechs, so he believed answering honestly was safe.  
"Well there sure are more of your kind coming here now than usually. Has there been a mass attack on you recently?" the red mech asked.  
"Err... no?" Thundercracker suddenly realized that this mech could know something about Silverwind and Starscream.  
"Knock Out, leave the poor mech alone. He just woke up," Forlorn said.  
"I was just asking. I mean, you saw those two Seekers that were taken here recently", Knock Out said.  
"Two Seekers?" Thundercracker's spark jumped in hope. "What did they look like?"  
"A silver-colored femme and a red mech. Said that their brother would come to rescue them. A trine mate, they said," said a dark green and blue mech. "Dunno their names, but sure were close."

Thundercracker's optics lit up with joy. He had found them!  
"Thundercracker? Thundercrack, it's you!" Silverwind's voice followed his joy and suddenly someone tackled him from his right. The femme had rushed to hug him, while Starscream followed him, more collected but smiling altogether.  
"I thought that you would come to save us from the outside," he noted with a smirk.  
"I was going to. Then I ran into some Autobots with stasis rifles," Thundercracker shrugged as Silverwind let go of him, elated to see his trine mates safe and sound. "They thought it was a good idea to let me come here to say hi to y'all."

Many mechs inside the room laughed.  
"That was a good one," Forlorn said. "But now that you've got in, how are you planning to get out?"  
"Well, I didn't have a chance to figure out the layout and possible escape routes, so we need to figure that out before making an actual plan," Thundercracker said.  
"We?" Silverwind repeated. Now it was Thundercracker's turn to smirk.  
"Even if the two of you decide to let me do all the work, I bet there are some here who'd love to get out of here too," Thundercracker turned to look at the other prisoners. Few nodded or voiced their agreement, much to the blue Seeker's shock.  
"Guys here are satisfied with their place here. In the end, even though we're trapped here and we have to do lots of work, the 'Bots treat us well. They even allow me to polish myself whenever I want to," Knock Out looked at his shining armor with pride. "I do miss the racing tracks, but it's a Pit out there. I bet many of us have gotten lazy here. The war is just too much work."  
"And too much danger," said an acid-green mech. "My spark brother got killed, my sparkmate as well. And don't mention any buddies."

Thundercracker remembered what he had thought when he had been a prisoner before his injury. However, he knew what he had come for. He turned to look at his trine mates to hear what they thought. If they wanted to get out, he would not object no matter how he felt.  
"Can we fly here?" he asked, hoping that the answer would be affirmative. If it was, he could try to convince his trine to stay there.  
"Not really, no," Forlorn told, getting Thundercracker's attention again. "That's why we have few fliers around. Most go nuts in these confined spaces and end up killing themselves if they aren't moved away soon enough."  
"Okay, so I guess we're going?" Thundercracker asked his trine mates. Suddenly the room felt too small and low.  
"I say yes," Starscream said. "We can't stay here." There was more than the confinement behind his opinion; he felt like they had to return to the Decepticon camp and continue warring. Something inside him demanded that.

He blamed it on the Decepticon programming as he registered the tiniest of signs on Thundercracker that showed the blue mech's dismay.  
"I say we go too," Silverwind said, unaware of the signs of Thundercracker's dismay. She could not see what Starscream did because she had not known Thundercracker for as long as he had. The knowledge Starscream had only accumulated during a timespan like an eternity. Thundercracker nodded, accepting the decision, and gestured the prisoners wanting to escape to come closer. It was time to put their current information together and form a plan.

As they got information on their prison, it turned out that escape was indeed very difficult. While most of the prisoners were laidback and just happy to be there and not fighting, there were indeed some with intents of getting out, hence the plethora of security personnel which the Three Seekers met soon enough. Thundercracker turned his hidden uncertainty into anger to seem like a normal Decepticon like his trine mates but he feared that something had to be done about his current emotional state. The effects of his trauma had to be erased, somehow...

He had to talk about it to Silverwind and Starscream. That was the only way. He knew it was the only way. Even if he wound up into psychologists' wing anyway, he wanted them to know. He wanted them to know what had happened and why, and if something went wrong, he wanted them to know why he had ended up there.

They deserved to know, Thundercracker knew it. His trine mates were like siblings to him... They were too dear to him. How could he ever leave them in uncertainty without giving them any idea about what had happened to him? How could he ever be so cruel to them to leave them aghast and all alone?

No, he could not do that. The mere thought of doing that made him feel choked in guilt. In addition to that, Skywarp's incomprehensible change had been enough for them already; he did not want to wind up that way especially without anyone knowing why he had ended up to that path...

The blue Seeker shook his head. He had to stop thinking about this and concentrate on arranging their escape. He looked at the adamant Starscream for confirmation for their course of action. The red Seeker noticed it and at that point he knew for certain that there was something that had to be talked about sooner or later.

They both wanted it to be sooner. The sooner, the better. This had to be settled before it grew too old...

But when? They needed time for this. Where? They needed privacy. How? Just somehow. It had to be done.

They both knew that it had to be done.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro, Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	15. Chapter 14: Time to Talk

Seeker log:  
Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 7108.

"What a long time it has been... We've been here for long, so long..."

It had turned out that escaping from forever-stay camp was pretty much impossible, meaning that the place was definitely worth its name. While the Three Seekers had maintained their sanity, the lack of flight and space was taking its toll on them. The need to escape into the battle had become stronger now, and the influence of the Decepticon programming on that had become lesser. They could not handle staying there forever, not under such conditions.  
"You know, I'd like to help you, but I don't wanna end up in trouble. You sure nice, but I'm not gonna oppose the 'Bots for ya. No offense, I wouldn't do it for anyone," Forlorn said.  
"Same here, sorry, folks. I love my shiny armor too much," Knock Out said.  
"Egoistic moron," Silverwind muttered so that only Thundercracker and Starscream even heard her voice.  
"Don't worry, we'll figure something out," Starscream reassured. "No need to put yourselves into danger."  
"These folks who prefer staying here, they... they do have a point. I mean, why are we fighting? What is the reason for the war? And are we... are we just pawns?" Thundercracker said tentatively. "I don't know anymore."

Thundercracker had showed this uncertainty earlier during their time here. Starscream was worried as he had not been able to talk with his friend about it in privacy, for they had none of that at the prison. That was one of the reasons why they had to get out. This issue in Thundercracker's mind had to addressed as soon as possible.  
"No matter what, our duty is to fight. It's our honor, and we need to hold onto that," Starscream said.  
"Is it really right?" Thundercracker asked.  
"Yes. I'm sure of that. Trust me, I'd never bring our trine into those battles if I thought that it was not right," Starscream said with authority Thundercracker had never achieved. Calmness, certainty and kindness were in balance in Starscream's authority, and Thundercracker could not help but follow the wiser mech. While they were around the same age, Starscream had always had a certain innate wisdom Thundercracker had admired for as long as he could remember.

More often than not, Thundercracker wished Starscream was the one leading their faction and not Megatron. To them, Megatron was a distant figure with a cold brute's reputation, while Starscream could be a more transparent and kind leader with more interest in the lives of the troops. Thundercracker knew that to Starscream, troops were never just names or numbers but living beings just like him.

And, Thundercracker mused grudgingly, if Starscream was the leader or became that, this war would be over. Surely the wise mech would make peace especially if he replaced Megatron now that he had experienced a lot on the battle field.  
"TC, why are you staring at me?" Starscream asked.  
"Huh? W-what?" Thundercracker jumped, surprised out of his thoughts.  
"You've been staring at me for a big while," Starscream noted. His expression became softer with concern. "Is something wrong? More wrong than usual, that is." They both knew that things had been wrong all their lives, and as they were imprisoned, they acknowledged it more strongly than ever in the Decepticon headquarters or the battle field.  
"No, I was just thinking..." Thundercracker said, letting his voice trail off.  
"About what?" Starscream asked.  
"That you'd be a much better leader than Megatron," Thundercracker sighed. "Really, I wish things were otherwise. That we wouldn't have to fight and all..."

The truth was, here, away from the headquarters or the battle field, they had too much time to think and acknowledge things. Starscream was silent; he, too, had thought of that. Silverwind did not say anything; she had just listened to her brothers talk and did not know what to make of Thundercracker's words. Yet now that Thundercracker had voiced his thoughts, Silverwind had to agree; she knew just as well as the blue mech did that Starscream was a great leader and more fitting to the position than Megatron if the rumors about, orders of and reports on the Decepticon leader were true.  
"We should get back to work," Starscream then said, looking over his shoulder. "Let's talk once our shift has ended."  
"Sure," Thundercracker said, nodding. It was time to tell his trine everything, he knew it.

 _After the shift_

"We should have enough privacy here if we stay quiet enough," Starscream said once they had found a corner in a noisy rec room. "We must talk now."  
"What is it about?" Silverwind asked.  
"TC, you've been acting weird ever since that injury. What's with your processor?" Starscream asked seriously.  
"I... I've been thinking too much ever since being injured badly last time. I don't think this fight is useful or that we should fight in it," Thundercracker told. "I'm thinking of getting something to make this scrap go away from my processor. It's getting too hard to deal with; I can't keep on functioning on the battle field as I am now."  
"I see," Starscream said. He had thought of similar things as the time had gone on and his conscience had bothered him. "TC, are you sure about that? We don't know what will be done to you. You could wind up like Skywarp or worse."  
"I know. That's why I wanted you to know what's going on so that you'd understand what's happening if I get messed up," Thundercracker said. "I just don't see any other way to get out of this anymore..." He pondered for a moment. "Unless we run away or defect."  
"We can't defect!" Silverwind gasped. "We'd be hunted down."  
"We could do it here. We're all caught, no one would know what really happened if we disappeared. They'd just think we're still stuck here," Thundercracker noted. "I want to fight but I'm sick of it. I'm sick of seeing you both get hurt, and what for? What are we fighting for? There's no reason for that, is there? Aren't we just pawns in this war?"

Starscream remembered pondering the same when Thundercracker had been injured and healing for a long time. What were they fighting for?  
"We can't defect, not yet. If we go, then there's no hope for peace among the Decepticons," the red Seeker said. "We need to get away, we need to get back and we need to get to the top no matter what. We need to get to influence the top levels. Otherwise Megatron and the other people keep fighting against the Autobots forever."  
"Are you sure we can do it? We are not treacherous backstabbers, so how can we get that far? We'd just get backstabbed and pushed back to the bottom!" Silverwind said.  
"We must be wary. Otherwise we can't make it. But if we work together, work hard, fight hard and prove ourselves, we can make it. I'm sure of it. We must get out and stop this madness from within," Starscream said. He remembered the idea of himself as the leader of the Decepticons. That picture was stronger now. If he became the leader, he would make peace. He would end this war.

But he was no leader outside his trine. He was just another warrior, another soldier among so many others. He had to become Megatron's right hand and convince the Decepticon leader to make peace. That was the only way.  
"TC, don't make any hasty decisions. We can talk this through and you won't need to resort to the shrinks. We don't want to lose you. And no matter what, you can count on us on anything and everything. We'll listen, don't we, Silver?" Starscream said.  
"Absolutely!" the femme noted. "We've counted on each other always. That's not going to change!"

Thundercracker smiled. Energon tears threatened to get out of his optics.  
"Thanks... My friends... Ya sure are the best family a mech can get," he said, moved. "Yeah, I'll talk with ya about all this scrap. We'll sort it out."  
"Good," Starscream said, relieved to hear that. "Now we need to figure out how to escape. The rest is for the time after leaving this place."

The Three Seekers stood up and went to sit, drink and talk with the mechs who wanted to escape with them.

It was time to make sure they would all escape from this prison.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro,** **Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp** **has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	16. Chapter 15: Escapists

Seeker log:

Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 7112./div

"It's time to run."

Thundercracker rushed through the corridor. It was time to act as the Forever-stay camp was suddenly under attack. How and why, he did not know.

"We're under attack!" he shouted to the rec room. He was laughed at first, but the sound of gunfire silenced the laughers soon. They suddenly understood that the blue Seeker was not joking or imagining it.

That was when the panic broke out, as many rushed to the deepest corners or to other doors in order to escape the fighting.

A toxic green mech, however, ran to the corridor Thundercracker had come from, screaming an incomprehensible battle cry. After him, other wannabe-escapers followed, screaming or shouting battle cries. Suddenly The Three Seekers were all alone in the room.

"Now what?" Silverwind asked.

"Let's escape while those nutcases create a distraction," Starscream answered.

"Let's run then," Thundercracker said. The trine rushed out of the room, ready to do what they had to in order to escape from their long-time prison. They snatched weapons from the fallen and rushed through the lines, hoping to avoid being shot at.

Somehow, miraculously, they managed to make it out of the building without any severe damage. Without hesitation, they rejoiced rising to their wings for the first time in what felt like an eternity.

"Time to get back to the HQ! Let's hurry!" Starscream said, speeding away from their prison. They did not know where to go exactly, but as soon as they got out of the area of sensory interference, they could figure out their destination and rush to the opposite direction, over the now burning camp.

"I hope the fellows there are ok. Knockout and the others don't deserve burning alive," Silverwind said.

"I agree. But if they burn, we can't help them. We must get away and do our job," Thundercracker said. He regretted not going down to make sure how things had turned out, but he knew they could do nothing for them no matter what. The building would collapse soon and kill everyone still trapped inside.

They could only hope for a quick and painless death for those inside.

After a long time of flying, they finally found a Decepticon outpost and landed there after getting a clearance. There they would find out where they were and where to go next. And for how long they had been away...

It turned out they had been presumed dead and erased from the lists. Therefore, they got listed there, into the Crypt unit, a unit of land-bound Decepticons who knew nothing of flying. The commander, Shocker, said that he would find a better unit for them "asap".

"I bet the good ol' Dreader would be real surprised to see us all," Thundercracker said and laughed. "Man, it feels so much better to be free to fly again!"

"Yeah, it sure is better to be free," Silverwind said. "Commander Dreader is in for a big surprise if he's still around!"

Starscream smiled but stayed silent. He was not sure if this was a good turn of events or not. He had enjoyed his time in the Forever-stay camp. The experiences there had made him realize how wrong they were in this war. Something had to be done about the Decepticons. They could not continue this way, Starscream knew it for sure now.

But how could they change the direction they were headed? Was there nothing they could actually do? Or... everything?

Now that they had gotten out, there was only one way to find out: going forward and working towards becoming powerful enough to affect the very course of the war.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro,** **Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp** **has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


	17. Chapter 16: A New Unit

Seeker log: Second time period: Fighting the war to survive. Log entry 4551359.

Starscream felt like he needed to hold his beating spark with his hands to keep it from bursting out of his chassis. He and his trine, The Three Seekers, had been called to meet Megatron himself.

This was it. They had finally made it far enough to finally make a difference in their faction.

Silverwind did not know what to make of this call. They had earned this, that was for certain, but something in her spark was apprehensive about it. She could not but her finger on what was causing the apprehension; she just did not want the trine to go there.

Something was about to happen there, but what?

There was only one way to find out, Silverwind admitted grudgingly.

Soon, the Seeker trine found themselves kneeling in front of Megatron. The Decepticon warlord was bigger than they had imagined him to be, and far more formidable than they had expected. Silverwind tried to hold her quivering spark inside her spark chamber; she was afraid of whatever would be the outcome of this meeting. Ever since Thundercracker's worst injury, she had questioned what they were fighting for. Would they now see what they had risked their lives for?

"I have heard a great deal of you three, The Three Seekers," Megatron said. Silverwind felt like she was shivering under her armor when she listened to her previously unmet leader's malicious voice. "You have served the Decepticon cause well."

"We are honored to serve," Starscream said with Thundercracker and Silverwind following hastily.

Silverwind felt the warlord look at her. She tried to keep herself strong, yet her spark still shivered in anticipation. The feeling passed as Megatron turned to look at the other two Seekers.

The warlord considered what to do with the upstarts. They had become valuable assets and seemed to serve loyally, but there had to be something fishy in the way they acted and worked together. No other Decepticon he had heard of had done so before with intents purely for the Decepticon cause.

It was time to put the loyalty of the trine to the test. "Thanks to your valuable work as Decepticons, I have decided to transfer you to my personal unit."

The Three Seekers could not help looking up at their leader in astonishment. Were they dreaming?

"It is a great honor, my liege," Starscream managed to say, and his trine mates followed suit, stuttering a bit. None of them had been unable to even imagine that they would receive an honor like this.

Silverwind and Thundercracker felt dread inside. This honor would open them to whole new risks: more ambitious backstabbers and the fact that if they failed, Megatron could dispose of them. In this fear, they once again questioned being Decepticons.

However, they would follow Starscream even to death, if that was to happen. The Leader Seeker knew what he was doing – and he had earned his trine mates' trust.

They just had to hang on and do their best as Decepticons until further notice.

That had to be enough.

 _Later that orn_

"I can't believe this actually happened," Silverwind sighed as she sat down to her new berth. "We as part of Megatron's personal unit? This is insane!"

"I know, right?" Thundercracker said. "Still, that situation and everyone there sure creeped me out!"

"We have stepped up our league," Starscream told. "We'd better be careful. There are bound to be backstabbers who won't hesitate to sabotage us."

Silverwind nodded. She knew for certain that they were not welcome in the ranks. They had to be careful.

Very careful.

None of the Seekers wanted to lose one another, no matter the price.

 **/Transformers Armada (c) Hasbro,** **Thundercracker has basing on G1 Thundercracker, which is (c) Hasbro, Skywarp** **has basing on G1 Skywarp, which is (c) Hasbro, Silverwind and other characters you cannot find on TFwiki (c) Me/**


End file.
